1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door lock device for a door of a refrigerator and freezer, and more particularly, to a door lock device for a door of a refrigerator and freezer that is configured to improve the coupling structure of an outer case and an inner case, thus preventing the inner case fixed by means of bolts to the surface of the door from being disassembled to the outside, and to reduce the whole volumes and the number of parts of opening and closing means and releasing means adapted to open and close the door, thus making it easy to perform assembling and installing processes.
2. Background of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator and freezer is used to keep articles to be cooled and frozen therein temporarily or for a long period of time, thus preventing them from being decayed, and on the other hand, a door lock device is mounted on a panel of a door.
So as to mount the door lock device on the panel of the door, first, a case is mounted on the panel of the door, and an operating lever is coupled to a handle connected to the case by means of a pin shaft. Next, one end of the operating lever is connected to a latch, and the latch is supported against an elastic spring in such a manner as to be reciprocated. The case has a frame having fixing holes formed on both sides thereof in such a manner as to fix the case to the panel of the door by means of bolts or rivets, and a base plate is coupled to the underside of the case by means of bolts.
An example of conventional door lock devices for the door of the refrigerator and freezer is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-1012814, wherein the door lock device includes: a case having an inner case having fixing frames formed on both side surfaces thereof in such a manner as to fix the inner case to a door panel by means of bolts, rivet holes and a shaft hole formed on the upper portions of the side surfaces of the inner case, a base frame fixed to the underside of the inner case by means of bolts, a cam insertion hole formed on the center of the rear portion of the base frame, and an outer case coupled to the outer edges of the inner case; opening and closing means having an outer handle whose one end is inserted into the shaft hole of the inner case and fixed by means of a center shaft, a guide member and an operating lever inserted sequentially into the interior of the outer handle in such a manner as to be coupled to the center shaft on their one end and to a cooperatively operating shaft coupled to the outer handle, and a latch and an operating plate disposed on the lower end of the operating lever in such a manner as to be reciprocated forward and backward by the operations of the outer handle and the operating lever; locking means having a locking plate whose one end is fixed to the inside of the base frame by means of bolts, a pressing portion disposed on the other end of the locking plate in such a manner as to be ascended and descended by means of an elastic force of a spring to control the operation of the latch, and a lock coupled to the top portion of the inner case in such a manner as to press and release the pressing portion of the locking plate; and releasing means having a housing coupled to an inner handle in such a manner as to be fixed to the rear surface of the door panel by means of bolts, a rotary shaft coupled to the inner handle in such a manner as to be penetrated into the cam insertion hole of the base frame on one end thereof, a rotary cam fitted to the end periphery of the rotary shaft, and rotary protrusions protruding from both sides of the top end periphery of the rotary cam in such a manner as to fix one end of the operating plate thereto, so that if the rotary shaft and the rotary cam rotate, the operating plate pulls the latch to release the locking state of the outer handle. Under the above-mentioned configuration, the conventional door lock device becomes complicated in the whole coupling structures and has the difficulties in the assembling and disassembling processes, thus making the productivity of the product lowered.
According to the conventional door lock device, the inner case and the outer case are fixed to each other by means of rivets R, and if the rivets R are forcedly removed, the outer case is easily separated from the inner case.
According to the conventional door lock device, the guide member and the operating lever coupled to the outer handle and the operating plate coupled to the latch become complicated in configurations and have many difficulties in assembling process, and further, it is hard to maintain the state where a locking piece of the locking plate is rigidly fixed to a locking protrusion of the latch. Besides, the elastic force of the spring supporting the locking plate may be reduced or the spring may be escaped from its original position, thus failing to release the locking state of the latch.
Accordingly, the conventional door lock device has many difficulties in the whole assembling processes and the maintenance process, thus undesirably increasing the product cost and the maintenance cost.